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Constructs
Constructs arrived out of a practical need, an extension of prosthetics. What do you do when a leg fails? You re-place it. When an arm fails? Replace it. When a heart fails, what then? The first constructs grew out of piecemeal replacements, steadily improved and added on until eventually it became easier to just build an entirely mechanical body and transfer what remained over to that. If there's no organic matter left from replacing it all anyways, it doesn't matter too much if the body is replaced gradually or all at once. After that, people began to see the other uses. Having to work somewhere not particularly suited for organic bodies? If you're dedicated enough, it's harder for the heat to burn through stone. However, the process of transferring someone's soul to a construct is a tricky one, and isn't always successful. For some, it's worth the risk. Others are considered too valuable to lose and are often persuaded to at least consider the idea by the High Council of Panea. While stud-ies in constructs are improving and the loss rate is gradually lowering, it is still by no means a safe undertaking and is a decision that isn't taken lightly.... While constructs of metal or stone are designed to be long lasting and used for the preservation and continuation of valuable minds, wooden constructs are used as limiters - when someone has proved themselves to be dangerous, there's no point in kill-ing them or locking them away, that's just a waste of resources. By putting them into a wooden construct, their natural lifespan isn't extended too far, and they can be useful in a safe, easily controllable manner. Magical limiters are built into their bodies to stop them performing certain actions, or straying too far from their set parameters, while still allowing them to act as labourers or other perform other simple tasks for the good of Panea. It's the easiest way to help improve construct technology while also giving these people a chance to rebuild their lives. These limiters can be put on stone and metal constructs, but non-wooden constructs are much more expensive to pro-duce, so the cheaper option is chosen for criminals. Wood is also much safer to transfer a soul into than other materials, as it is organic and has already car-ried life once before, so is easier to put life back into. Constructs are frequently upgraded, and their soul can be moved to a different construct body, however the risk of complications and death increase with each transfer. As Constructs do not naturally heal, a yearly mainte-nance week is organised in most major settlements to help provide servicing for those constructs who may not have access to it otherwise. This began in the Borgen region and was soon picked up by the rest of the nation. Due to Constructs being in a crafted body, they do not have natural mana pools, but can easily be physically stronger than an average person. This trait makes them ideal as fighters, as their limbs can also be more easily repaired and replaced. Some models of constructs are designed to run at lower temperatures and to muffle their own sound, resulting in very hard to detect spies. Up-graded power cells can mean a Construct requires much less rest to recharge than the average human. The process of becoming a Construct changes a person. They can become less susceptible to emotional out-bursts, or in a severe case become numb to all emotion. Unless they have expensive nerve inserts, they do not feel physical pain or changes in temperature, but are subject to feeling phantom limbs. The mind is all that they have left of their original self, and so it isn’t uncom-mon for them to develop severe phobias to anything that seeks to alter that. Those Constructs subject to physical limiters have usually received harsh behaviour condition-ing to make them suitable for the conversion, which can lead to a fear of either disobeying these rules, or of re-ceiving more. Some anti-construct groups began replac-ing windchime parts with tubes from disassembled Con-structs to incite fear and ward them away. After a brief period, any form of windchime is now associated with anti-construct racists. Appearance Must not have any human coloured skin showing. In-stead, skin should be painted or covered to replicate metal, stone or wood. Constructs should look obviously crafted, not as if they have grown out of the material.